Furt
by Amaranth O'Riley
Summary: Moments between Finn, Kurt, and the newly-formed Hudmel family.
1. Breaking Stereotypes

**Breaking Stereotypes**

It's kinda nice, having Kurt as a brother, Finn's decided. Especially when he comes home for Christmas break and walks straight towards the kitchen. About an hour later, the house starts to smell _really_ good, and Finn decides to investigate. He finds his stepbrother standing in front of the oven, absolutely covered in flour as he scoops spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a pan. There's already several dozen finished cookies stacked on a plate on the counter, along with three trays of brownies, two of cupcakes, and a small cake.

"Dude, what?"

Kurt doesn't glance up from his scooping.

"Stress relief," he says, "I just took my geometry exam, and it was a bitch. So I'm baking."

Finn gapes a bit at the word 'bitch', because Kurt, like, never curses. But then he picks up a cookie and takes a bite.

"This is amazing!" he exclaims, staring at the half-eaten cookie in awe. He reaches for another.

Kurt slaps his hand away.

"Not yet, I still need to frost them!"

Two hours later, Finn's practically whining at Kurt as he spreads frosting over the cookies. Every surface of the kitchen is covered in baked goods, and Finn's stomach has been growling since he caught the first whiff of junk food. Finally, after what feels like _forever,_ Kurt sets the knife down and looks to Finn.

"Dig in," he says, grabbing for a brownie himself.

Finn does so gladly. He's fully planning on consuming about two-thirds of this alone, since his mom's on a new diet and Kurt won't let Burt _touch_ anything with sugar or fat or taste. And he's sure that Kurt probably eats like a girl, and will only consume two or three bites before he claims to be full.

But Kurt eats the food just as enthusiastically as Finn does. When they've cleared a plate of cookies and half a tray of brownies, Kurt wraps everything up and tells Finn he can have more after dinner.

They both creep to the kitchen at midnight, and between the two, manage to scarf down twenty-four cookies, six cupcakes, and two trays of brownies.

-.-

Finn always knew Kurt listened to girly music—he was the most enthusiastic supporter behind the Gaga campaign, after all—but the music blaring from his speakers right now is pretty irritating. When he complains, Kurt shoots him a look and sayas, "Phantom of the Opera is a masterpiece, Finn, don't be ridiculous." He turns back to his phone, texting away, as a shrill woman's voice holds a note for longer than should be possible. The song ends, and Finn braces himself for another just like it. Instead, he hears a familiar intro burst from the speakers, and he turns around in shock.

"Dude!" He practically screams, "Aerosmith?"

Kurt doesn't look up, just cocks an eyebrow, "Yeah? So?"

"Nothing, man, just didn't think it was your style."

"I do listen to things other than show tunes, you know."

"Well yeah," Finn concedes, "I mean, you listen to Madonna and Lady Gaga and stuff..."

Kurt sighs and throws a pillow at him.

-.-

It's weird, but Finn and Puck are still kinda friends. Finn doesn't trust him at all anymore, but it's still cool hanging out with him, especially since he's the only person who'll willingly play Mortal Kombat with him for hours on end. So Puck comes over about every other week, and the two claim the living room couch as they procede to beat the crap out of each other virtually.

But one Saturday, Puck's mom calls after only an hour, and Puck stands up, shrugging.

"Sorry, dude," he says, sliding his jacket on, "I need to take my sister to dance practice or something."

"But I was winning!" Finn exclaims, gesturing to the game.

Kurt walks in at that moment, having returned from a seven-hour shopping marathon with Mercedes and Tina.

"Yo, Kurt, mind taking my place?" Puck tosses his controller and stalks out.

Finn sighs, "It's fine dude, you can watch that fashion show or something."

Finn's reaching to turn off the game when Kurt slides onto the couch next to him, saying, "No, I'll play."

Finn shoots him an incredulous look, but shrugs and continues playing.

Ten minutes later, Kurt's kicking his _ass_, and Finn's thinking that maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

-.-

Finn does know that Kurt knows a thing or two about cars. Burt's been a mechanic for nearly thirty years, and Kurt's worked in his shop every summer since he was twelve. So when Finn's driving his mom's minivan and it suddenly sputters and dies, he dials Kurt immediately.

An hour later, he's lounging in Burt's garage as Kurt tinkers with the car. He's bent over the hood, doing complicated things to the car's insides that Finn doesn't entirely understand. Kurt tries to explain stuff, saying something about a "clogged fuel injection", or something, but Finn bores easily and looks around for a magazine or something. There's a stack of automotive catalogues in a corner, but not much else. Until he flips to the bottom of the magazine stack and spots an issue of Vogue, probably left by Kurt.

He glances up, but Kurt's concentrating on the engine. Finn slinks to the floor, flipping through the pages of the magazine. It's not that bad, honestly, cause some of the girls are pretty hot and the clothes are low-cut and tight and all. He's halfway through with reading an article about Gwyneth Paltrow (who's totally smokin' for an old chick) when a shadow falls over the pages. He looks up into Kurt's smirking face.

"Vogue?" he asks, raising his eyebrow.

"The chicks are hot!" Finn argues, but Kurt just wipes his grease-stained hands on a rag and grins.

"Car's all fixed," he says, "I changed the oil, too, and replaced two of the tires. It was in pretty bad shape."

"Thanks man," Finn says, standing up.

They walk past the windows of Burt's office when Finn freezes. Kurt looks confused for a moment, before he looks into the reflection of the windows and laughs before strutting over to the car and sliding into the driver's seat.

That night, Finn laughs as he pictures their reflection again—him, holding a copy of the girliest magazine in the _world_, and Kurt, with mussed hair and grease stains covering his white t-shirt and jeans.

They sure know how to break stereotypes.


	2. Did You Ever?

_Warning: This one is incredibly angsty. I wrote it when I was holed up in my dorm for four days with a nasty flu, so it's highly depressing. The next one'll be funny, I swear!_

**Did You Ever?**

He's over at Rachel's when he first starts thinking about it. It's the weekend before Sectionals, and Rachel is using Finn as her relaxation technique. Not that he minds, of course, because she's totally letting him make out with her and touch her boobs, and that's totally awesome. At six-thirty, though, she sits up and tells him it's time for him to go home so she can eat dinner with her dads. He groans and tries to pull her back down, but she pushes him away gently and places a chaste kiss on his cheek before rolling off the bed. He complies, mainly because he's a little bit scared of her dads and he _really_ doesn't want them to hate him.

They walk downstairs hand-in-hand, passing through the living room, where both of Rachel's dads are watching the news. The two men are curled up together on the couch, wrapped around each other like he and Rachel had been earlier. Even though Finn totally isn't homophobic or anything, it's still super weird to see two _men_ in such an intimate position. Rachel is pulling him towards the door, but she stops suddenly and whirls around, eyes locked on the television. Her fathers have moved, too, unwrapping their arms from each other and leaning forward. Finn is super-confused before he realizes that he should probably be _listening_ to the news, so he turns to the screen as well.

He hears some woman talking about a kid in Columbus—a picture flashes across the screen, and the guy looks about fifteen—who swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills in his bathroom. There's some medical terminology that Finn doesn't understand, but he does manage to get the word _suicide_ out. Rachel makes a hissing noise next to him, and one of her fathers wraps an arm around his partners' shoulder. Before Finn can react, Rachel is pulling him towards the door again.

"Rach?" he asks, once they enter the foyer, "What's wrong?"

Rachel shakes her head, brown curls floating around her face. She hands Finn his jacket and speaks as she helps him into it.

"Another gay suicide," she tells him, smoothing down the sleeves, "Don't you watch the news?"

Finn shakes his head, turning back to his girlfriend.

"It's been a huge news topic this year," she states, glancing through the doorway at the television, "There've been dozens of kids in Ohio alone who have killed themselves because of homophobic bullying. My dads say the ACLU is looking into better rules at public schools, but nobody wants to help. It's not _fair..."_

Finn blinks hard a few times.

"Rach," he asks quietly, "Do you think Kurt-"

"Finn!" Rachel smacks his arm sharply, "Don't _ever_ think like that, alright? Kurt would _never_, so don't even talk about something like that, ok?"

She shoves him out the door, but not before he sees her eyes watering.

He drives home distractedly, thinking about the news story and suicide and his brother.

When he gets home, Kurt's in their room. He's lying on his stomach on the bed with a heavy textbook perched in front of him. He'd been complaining about how much harder Dalton classes were as compared to McKinley, and worked on homework almost constantly in his efforts to catch up. Finn just stands in the doorway and looks at him for a moment. He realizes he's been staring a bit too long when Kurt looks up and raises his eyebrows.

"Something wrong, Finn?"

Finn steps forward, closing the door behind him. He makes his way over to his side of the room and sits on the bed, facing his stepbrother.

"Kurt? Can I ask you something?"

Kurt closes his textbook and turns a bit.

"It's just...I mean, at Rachel's today, her dads were watching the news. And they started talking about some kid in Columbus who killed himself because he was gay and he was getting bullied and stuff..."

Kurt sighs dramatically and rubs his temples.

"Look, Finn, I've already had this conversation with my dad, and Carole, and Mrs. Pillsbury, and I really don't want to have to have it again. I'm not suicidal, ok?"

Finn opens his mouth, but there's a knock on the door and his mom calls out that dinners ready. Kurt stands immediately, shooting Finn a look that clearly says _this discussion is over_ before he flounces up the stairs.

-.-

Everything's kind of hectic after Sectionals. Kurt comes home a few days before Christmas, and then there's a herd of Hummel-Hudson relatives traipsing in and out until New Years. Eventually, everything calms down and Finn and Kurt are left in an empty house while their parents drive to Indiana to visit Carole's sister.

Finn's halfway through Anchorman when he feels Kurt plop down on the other side of the sofa. He turns slightly, and realizes that Kurt's watching him. He's sitting stiffly, with his hands pressed under his legs and his back straight. Finn reaches for the remote with popcorn-buttery fingers, hitting the pause button a few times before the movie finally freezes.

"I'm sorry," he says, "about the whole suicide thing. I shouldn't have blown you off, I was just sick of everyone asking me about it."

"Nah, it's cool," Finn tells him, grinning as he digs his hand in the popcorn bowl again.

"I did, once," Kurt says, drawing his knees up to his chest, "Think about it, I mean."

"When?" Finn asks, expecting him to say _'middle school'_ or _'before Glee'._

Instead, Kurt twists his hands together and says softly, "A few months ago."

Finn gapes a bit.

"Dude, like, this year?"

Kurt nods and clenches his jaw a bit.

"Stuff just got really bad really fast, and I didn't think I could handle it anymore," he says, eyes watering up, "With my dad and Karofsky and everything. It was just too much too fast."

"Kurt, man, why didn't you say anything?"

Kurt scoffs, "Really, Finn? Half the time it's like you can't stand being around me, it's not like I was going to walk up to you and say, _'Hey, by the way, I'm totally thinking about sticking a gun to my head tonight'."_

"That's not—I would have _cared_, Kurt, I _do _care."

Kurt doesn't say anything.

"Is that...is that how you were going to do it? Shoot yourself?"

Kurt shakes his head slowly.

"No, I was going to sit in my car, leave it running in the garage. It would've been easy, like going to sleep."

Kurt wipes a tear from his eye, and Finn reaches over to grab his shoulder.

"Then I thought of my dad," he continues, "of him waking up to find my body. It would've killed him. So I didn't."

"Dude..."

"Finn, I'm fine now, really. It was a temporary moment of weakness, and it'll never happen again, I promise."

Finn nods slowly and holds out his bowl, silently offering popcorn. Kurt takes a small handful, not complaining about what it'll do to his complexion.

"Kurt..you know you can talk to me, right? I mean, I know I haven't always been nice to you, and I pretty much suck as a brother, but I'll listen. I really do care, I promise. You're my brother, man, I love you."

Kurt looks at him for a moment before launching forward, wrapping his arms around Finn in a tight hug. Finn returns it awkwardly, trying not to spill buttery popcorn down his stepbrother's shirt.

"Thanks, Finn," Kurt murmurs into his ear before pulling away. He makes a move to stand up, but Finn grabs his wrist and pulls him down again.

"Hey, this movie's really funny, wanna watch it with me?"

Kurt nods hesitantly, and Finn rewinds to the beginning.


End file.
